Kazakh banks halt operations with Russia's "Zolotaya Korona" payment system amid U.S. sanctions

Several major banks in Kazakhstan have stopped money transfers through "Zolotaya Korona." Specifically, Kazakhstan's HalykBank, Bank RBK, and Eurasian Bank have ceased payment operations with Russians, TASS reported.

The three financial institutions stated that operations with the payment system were halted “due to technical reasons.”

Freedom Bank was the first to announce, a day earlier, that it would stop working with the payment system, citing “technical work” as the reason. According to the bank’s statement, further steps will be taken after receiving additional information from the payment system.

Meanwhile, other major Kazakh banks, including CenterCredit, Bereke Bank, and Nurbank, have announced that they will continue processing payments through “Zolotaya Korona” for now.

US Imposes Sanctions on “Zolotaya Korona” Developer

"Zolotaya Korona" is one of the main payment services used by Russians to withdraw money abroad after the country was cut off from SWIFT and the Visa and Mastercard payment systems.

On August 23, the U.S. Treasury imposed blocking sanctions against the developer of "Zolotaya Korona" — the IT company "Center of Financial Technologies." Now, legal entities registered in the United States cannot interact with the company, and the "Center of Financial Technologies" itself loses the ability to process payments in dollars.

Previously, the "Unistream" service, which helped Russian clients withdraw money abroad, also fell under U.S. sanctions due to the war in Ukraine.